apertures in the rocks, it was impossible to surmount; and Jane felt that she was passing over immense masses of ice, the accumulation perhaps of a hundred winters. She was fleet and agile, and inspired with almost supernatural courage; she, though a woman, naturally born to fears,' followed on fearlessly; till they came to an immense rock, whose conical and giant form rested on broken masses below, that on every side were propping this mighty monarch of the scene.'

For the first time, crazy Bet seemed to remember she had a companion, and to give a thought to her safety." Jane," said she, "go carefully over this lower ledge, there is a narrow foot-hold there; let not your foot slip on the wet leaves, or the soft moss. I am in the spirit, and I must mount to the summit."

Jane obeyed her directions, and when, without much trouble, she had attained the further side of the rock, she looked back for crazy Bet, and saw her standing between heaven and earth on the very topmost point of the high rock: she leant on the branch of a tree she had broken off in her struggle to reach that lofty station. The moon had declined a little from the meridian; her oblique rays did not penetrate the depths where Jane stood, but fell in their full brightness on the face of her votress above. Her head, as we have noticed, was fantastically dressed with vines and flowers; her eyes were in a fine 'frenzy, rolling from earth to heaven, and heaven to earth;' she

looked like the wild genius of the savage scene. and she seemed to breathe its spirit, when, after a moment's silence, she sang, with a powerful and thrilling voice, which waked the sleeping echoes of the mountain, the following stanza :

"Tell them I AM,' Jehovah said

To Moses, while earth heard in dread,
And smitten to the heart;

At once above, beneath, around,
All nature, without voice or sound,
Replied, Oh Lord, Thou art

In vain Jane called upon her. In vain she entreated her to descend. She seemed wrapt in some heavenly vision; and she stood mute again and motionless, till a bird, that had been scared from its nest in a cleft of the rock, by the wild sounds, fluttered over her and lit on the branch she still held in her hand. "Oh !" exclaimed she, messenger of love, and omen of mercy, I am content;" and she swiftly descended the sloping side of the rock, which she hardly seemed to touch.

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"Now," said Jane, soothingly, "you are rested, let us go on."

"Rested! yes, my body is rested, but my spirit has been the way of the eagle in the air. You cannot bear the revelation now, child. Come on, and do your earthly work."

They walked on for a few yards, when Bet, suddenly turned to the left and ascended the mountain, which was there less steep and rugged than at any place they had passed. At a short distance.

before her Jane perceived, glimmering through the trees, a faint light. "Heaven be praised!"' said she, "that must be John's cottage."

As they came nearer the dog barked; and the old man, coming out of the door, signed to Jane to sit down on a log, which answered the purpose of a rude door-step; and then speaking to crazy Bet, in a voice of authority, which, to Jane's utter surprise, she meekly obeyed-" Take off," said he, "you mad fool, those ginglements from your head, and stroke your hair back like a decent Christian woman; get into the house, but mind you, say not a word to her."

Crazy Bet entered the house, and John, turning to Jane, said, "You are an angel of goodness for coming here to-night, though I am afraid it will do no good; but since you are here, you shall see her."

See her! See what, John ?" interrupted Jane.

"That's what I must tell you, Miss; but it is a piercing story to tell to one that looks like you. It's telling the deeds of the pit to the angels above.” He then went on to state, that a few days before he had been searching the mountains for some medicinal roots, when his attention was suddenly arrested by a low moaning sound, and on going in the direction from whence it came, he found a very young looking creature, with a new-born infant, wrapped in a shawl, and lying in her arms. He spoke to the mother, but she made no reply, and seemed quite unconscious of every thing, till he attempted to take the child from her; she then

grasped it so firmly, that he found it difficult to remove it. He called his wife to his assistance, and placed the infant in her arms. Pity for so young a sufferer nerved the old man with unwonted strength, and enabled him to bear the mother to his hut. There he used the simple restoratives his skill dictated; but nothing produced any effect till the child, with whom the old woman had taken unwearied pains, revived and cried. "The

sound," he said, "seemed to waken life in a dead body." The mother extended her arms, as if to feel for her child, and they gently laid it in them. She felt the touch of its face, and burst into a flood of tears, which seemed greatly to relieve her ; for after that she took a little nourishment, and fell into a sweet sleep, from which she awoke in a state to make some explanations to her curious preservers. But as the account she gave of herself was, of necessity, interrupted and imperfect, we shall take the liberty to avail ourselves of our knowledge of her history, and offer our readers a slight sketch of it.

CHAPTER X.

Death lies on her like an untimely frost,
Upon the sweetest flower of all the field.

ROMEO AND JULIET.

THE name of the stranger was Mary Oakley. Her parents had gone out adventurers to the West Indies, where, at the opening of flattering prospects, they both died victims to the fever of the climate, which seldom spares a northern constitution. Mary, then in her infancy, had been sent home to her grand-parents, who nursed this only relict of their unfortunate children with doating fondness. They were in humble life; and they denied themselves every comfort, that they might gratify every wish, reasonable and unreasonable, of their darling child. She, affectionate and ardent in her nature, grew up impetuous and volatile. Instead of rocking the cradle of reposing age,' she made the lives of her old parents resemble a fitful April day, sunshine and cloud, succeeding each other in rapid alternation. She loved the old people tenderly-passionately, when she had just received a favour from them; but, like other spoiled children, she never testified that love.